Azza Chaabouni is a Tunisian teacher-researcher in the Department of Cinema and Audiovisual Studies at ISAMM (Tunis). She is a former editor, an independent film programmer and serves as an expert and consultant on film projects as well as for national and international cultural organisations.

Her research work focuses on cinemas of Africa, the Arab world and their diasporas employing a socio-anthropological approach. She is interested in the trajectories of filmmakers whose works focus on the notions of memory and identity, the collective dimension within the cinematic creative processes, as well as the transformative endeavours within the film “industry”.

Since 2014, she has been engaged in supporting emerging filmmakers as the head of programs such as Takmil/JCC, خطوات Ciné Par’Court, and MedWIPS. She also served as a mentor, reader and juror for different organisations such as CNCI, DFMI, AFAC, IDA, IDFA, DOX BOX, Between Women Filmmakers Caravan.

She is a founding member of Doc House-Tunisia, and recently participated in the development of the Durban FilmMart Institute’s Future Mentors programme. She studied cinema in Cinecittà-Rome, and pursued a Master degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology in Tunis. Her PhD Thesis work focuses on the Transnational Arab Women Filmmakers’ Collective Rawiyat-SIF.